Lifestyle &Race Reports 11 Sep 2007 07:35 pm
Back from Scotland
Here is my condensed report on our trip to Scotland for the Singlespeed World Championships. We left Edinburgh for Aviemore on the Tuesday before the race. After a relaxing train ride we met up with Mari and Dave to drive up to Dave’s family’s croft near Nethy Bridge, just outside of Aviemore. Wednesday was a long ride from the croft into Aviemore and up into the forestry lands towards the Cairngorms. Socializing, hiking and general sleeping-in filled up the time until the race on Sunday. On Sunday morning we all collected at Bothy Bikes then rode in convoy up to the race site about an hour away. After a bit of standing around, the race was started by a Le Mans start and then off around the course. The course was fun, with a fair amount of open climbing and lots of technical decending with good, rideable but challenging drops and rocks. The race was 5 laps, and I made it to the 4th lap before getting lapped by the eventual winner, Adam Craig. As Adam did pretty well at the real World Championships the next weekend, so I’m pretty happy with this overall. There was a good post race feast from the Mountain Cafe and the local brewery. Monday was recovery, then a long hike in the Cairngorms on Tuesday. Wednesday we went to Fort William to watch Emily Batty race to 10th place in the women’s U23 World Championships. Congratulations Emily! We were back in Fort William on Saturday to watch the Elite Men and Women, as well as a number of the Trials events. The flight back on Sunday was uneventful! That’s all for now. I’ll try to post pictures and more as I have time!
